Scugog medical team returns to Central America

Speroway volunteer caregivers to deliver help, hope in El Salvador

Day 3 -- Cuilapa

CUILAPA -- Dr. Tony Brown, a Port Perry family physician, talked to a patient during a Speroway medical clinic in Cuilapa on February 22. February 22, 2012

DAY 2 -- El Limon

Chris Hall / Metroland

EL LIMON -- Ross Taylor, a Port Perry paramedic, tried his best to get a reluctant Innma Caracun, 6, to open up her mouth so he could take a look during a Speroway medical clinic in El Limon, a slum outside of Guatemala City, on February 21. February 21, 2012

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The group of volunteers will spend just over a week in and around San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, where they will provide much-needed medical and dental care, as well as administer medications and other life-saving goods.

The effort will once again be led by Port Perry physician Dr. Tony Brown, Speroway's medical advisory, and Scugog dentist Dr. Jack Cottrell.

"There's a need there, there's a need to help those people," said Dr. Brown, describing the hot and heartbreaking conditions the team will be working in.

But, he added, trips like the Speroway medical missions provide participants an opportunity to "reboot" their own lives by putting things into perspective and give native El Salvadorans a chance to give back to their own community.

"It's not just the need of the people we're seeing and treating, it's the needs of the people working to help their own people," said Dr. Brown.

About 30 people in total will make up the team, with a dozen or more coming from Scugog, Uxbridge and elsewhere in Durham Region.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics will assess patients waiting hours in line for medical treatment while dentists and their assistants will be on dental duty. A team of pharmacists and their helpers will dispense medications and items such as food, clothes and toys will be handed out by the distribution team.

This will be Speroway's fourth medical mission to El Salvador and the first since a team spent a week in Guatemala in February.

Their stops will range from an orphanage about an hour outside of San Salvador, needy neighbourhoods on the rural outskirts of the capital city and an inner-city slum.

"We want to show them love," said Dr. Brown. "We're giving them vitamins and medications, but it's really the fact we're there, helping them and giving them our love."

To follow the team's work in El Salvador via a blog, or to contribute to their medical mission, visit www.speroway.com.